Monday, January 25, 2016

Rubberstamp Republicans

It took a little finesse, but a Senate deal to confirm five of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees held this week, despite pressure from a key conservative interest group to shut down the process entirely.

“Did you wait for me?” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, asked floor staffers as she entered the chamber. “Is it a tight vote?”

The Republican-controlled chamber eventually did confirm Judge Wilhelmina Wright to be a U.S. district judge in Minnesota Tuesday, but the 58-36 vote belied tension on the floor as “no” votes piled up from GOP leaders and the rank and file, amid Heritage Action for America’s announcement it would hold senators accountable if they voted for her.

Last week, Heritage Action called for the Senate to “stop confirming any of Obama’s non-security nominees” and singled out Wright specifically as a nominee who “should be rejected.” The group followed up on Tuesday, announcing that the vote on her nomination would be a key vote on its legislative scorecard.

“If Senate Republicans band together and block this nomination, it will be a strong first step on a long path towards the Congress reasserting their constitutional prerogatives and defending the rule of law,” the statement from Heritage Action said.

I looked at the Heritage Action Web site. It said nothing about Judge Wright's legal acumen and offered no appraisal of the opinions she wrote while she sat on the state court bench. It prominently noted a few racist statements she made while she was a young law student, which seems to be the sole basis of their objection to her. And BTW, she is an African-American woman who overlapped with Michelle Obama in law school.